Financial IncentivesMaryland’s business-friendly culture offers plenty of financial resources for businesses and a high level of overall economic activity.

Investing in Business and People

Whether your business is a startup or an industry leader, you’ll appreciate Maryland’s array of funding programs, investment incentives, and tax credits—along with the kind of robust economic activity in which all businesses thrive.

Here are just three examples. Our primary fund is the Maryland Economic Development Assistance Authority Fund (MEDAAF), which provides below-market, fixed-rate direct assistance to growth-industry-sector businesses. The Partnership for Workforce Quality (PWQ) provides matching training grants and support services for small and mid-size manufacturing and technology companies. And Export MD helps small and mid-size companies offset the costs of marketing internationally.

Tax Credits and Incentives

Maryland offers a wealth of tax credits to help new and existing businesses reduce costs, stimulate investment, and hire more workers. Businesses of different types in different industries will qualify for different tax credits.

One of the newest is More Jobs for Marylanders, a tax credit program for manufacturers who create jobs in areas of the state most in need of jobs. Hire Our Veterans is aimed at putting our veterans back to work. Maryland also offers tax credits targeted to investment in cybersecurity or biotechnology, research and development, several enterprise zones, brownfields development, and even wineries and vineyards.

A Better Measure of Value

Everyone loves to hate taxes. And it’s true that, in terms of basic business tax rates, you can find lower rates than Maryland’s. But business tax rates alone don’t tell the whole story of a state’s economic activity.

That’s why economic analysts at Ernst & Young recently calculated what they call a “total effective business tax rate,” the ratio of business taxes to private sector gross state product. By that metric, Maryland ranks in the top 10 of states with the lowest total effective business tax rate.

Combine that fact with Maryland’s advantages in transportation infrastructure, a highly educated and skilled workforce, and a high quality of life (made possible in part by—guess what?—business taxes) and Maryland looks like exactly what it is: a place where businesses and people prosper.